Since When do Burgers Cause This Much Trouble?
by R.A.Eng
Summary: The war against Kronos has just ended. Do you remember when Thalia siad they should go grab some burgers sometime? Well they go out for burgers as regular people, but trouble always seems to follow these young demigods. P.s. Don't own anything.
1. Getting to the Diner

"Hey Spongebob, Annabeth! Burgers. Let's go." Thalia said bursting into my cabin. Annabeth and I were just hanging out enjoying the time together. A few days ago we defeated Kronos and all was good. _Oh great. I got a new name. _I thought.

We looked at her and must have given her a puzzled look because she said "Remember? Before the war I said we had to get burgers some time. And it's time now. So let's get moving." Thalia said impatiently as she motioned for us to get out the door.

Thalia led us out of the camp and shoved a black piece of fabric into both of our hands that looked like a tie, or maybe a handkerchief, or maybe a-

"Blindfolds." Thalia said. "Put them on. This place is a surprise." I looked to Annabeth and then to Thalia, whose face said 'put them on or I'll make you', and then I looked back to Annabeth and she shrugged. We put them on and Thalia led us through the crowded streets of Manhattan pulling us by the wrist. This was probably very unsafe but I didn't really have a choice.

"Ow! Sorry." I said. I had probably said sorry in the wrong direction but I couldn't see. That was like the tenth 'ow' I let out in five minutes.

"Sorry, Sea Monster. Want to just take the subway? Might be easier." Thalia offered.

"Yes, please." Annabeth begged. We walked some more and I walked into some more people, lampposts, and accidentally kicked some poor puppies. I'm sorry, but I couldn't help it. If you're going to be mad, be mad at Thalia. She should have warned me. After like, a dozen times five more apologies, we turned into the subway system. Well actually, first we had to go down the stairs to enter the subway.

"Subway." Thalia announced.

"Um, Thalia? I really don't think this is safe, you know, to go down crowded stairs with blindfolds on." I said sounding a little nervous. I was kind of hinting for her to let us take the blindfolds off, but she didn't get the hint.

"Yeah, yeah, it's safe. Now step," Thalia ordered.

I took a step and so did Annabeth.

"Step," Thalia lead us. "Step… Don't step!" she yelled so loud that I was startled and I was half leaning forward to take another step and half trying to stay back. I had lost my balance and fell down the rest of the stairs. Luckily, I'm invincible.

I don't know how, but Annabeth managed to get down quickly without a scratch.

"You know, I should have just fell down the whole stair case to save time." I said.

"Agreed, now we got to move or the train will leave without us!" Thalia said. This time she pushed us onto the train cart and we, well I don't know about Annabeth, but I was wedged between someone who put on probably five different perfumes and colognes; the smell was interesting… interestingly awful, and someone who was wearing a ton of feathers that kept blowing off into my face. The cart was crowded and hot and somewhere where I didn't want to be.

"Annabeth? Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah. Where are you?" She asked.

Thalia came, pulled my wrist and cut through the crowd of people. She stopped me and said "Relax, you're right beside each other."

My hand tried to find Annabeth's hand. But my hand just moved around in the air hoping to find Annabeth's. It must have looked like I was either trying to slap somebody, or I just really stunk at miming. Well, to tell the truth, I really stunk at miming but that's not what I was attempting.

Thalia let out an 'ugh' and she took my hand and I'm guessing Annabeth's too and stuck them together, but not like lacing out hands together. She more like put our hands right in front of each other and I felt her fingertips along mine. I grabbed her hand and pulled her closer towards me.

"Thalia, remind me never to let you take me anywhere." I said sounding probably scared.

I couldn't see her face, but I'm sure she rolled her eyes.

After a few minutes of underground traveling, I said "So is Artemis going to hate me?"

"Nah, well, maybe." Thalia replied.

Before I had time to reply saying something about how all the gods hate me, the subway doors opened and Thalia shoved us out.

"More stairs?" I asked groaning.

"Well, it's either that, or the escalator. Your pick." Thalia said.

"I pick the stairs, less dangerous."

This time I grabbed the railing and took my time. It took me two minutes to walk up ten stairs. Finally we were out of the subway and walking on the busy streets again. We crossed the street, or maybe we jay walked because there were tons of car honks. But we made it across without getting hit and we were standing in one spot for a really long time.

"Something wrong? Are we lost?" I asked. The second sentence didn't sound much like a question. It sounded more like an annoyed statement.

"No, we're here" Thalia said.

I took off my blindfold and gave a sigh of relief.

"Ah, we made it here in one piece." I said laughing.

Thalia gave me a glare, but a joking kind of glare and smiled. The place looked so cool. There were booths that were black and white, there was a music player in the corner, and circular chairs that swivel in front of a long table. It looked like a fifties diner.

We sat down at a booth. Annabeth and I sat on one side and Thalia took the other. "So how's camp been?" Thalia asked.

"Great." Annabeth replied.

Thalia put on a smile before she asked the next question. "And how are the lovebirds doing?" She said the word 'lovebirds' in a teasing tone referring to us.

I blushed and neither of us said a word. Thalia just laughed and the waitress cam over on roller blades. We ordered a burger and fries each. We ate out burgers and talked. It was nice to be just hanging out with friends, but that nice feeling didn't last too long. Something burst through the glass windows of the diner, ruining all of the posters that hung on the glass windows promoting their new special, burgers and fries. It was a hell hound. The mortals immediately looked over to the shattered glass.

"Aww, look!" One of the waitresses said! "That puppy is so cute!" She put an emphasis on the word 'so'.

The hell hound came over to our table and would have smashed us flat, but we dodged just in time, so all he got was a mouthful of my burger.

"Hey! That's mine!" I yelled at the dog.

Annabeth and Thalia got up and pulled me away from the hellhound. "I'll buy you another, now let's go!" Annabeth said pulling my arm.

Some of the customers were taking pictures and making 'aww' sounds. The hellhound turned around and found us running out where the w used to be. it chased after us and we ran as fast as we could. Unfortunately the hellhound caught up with us in two steps. Then I pulled out Riptide, Thalia took out her bow and arrows but I'm not sure where they came from, and Annabeth brought out her dagger that was hidden in her hair. Her hair was in a bun and she used her dagger as chopsticks. Right there, I felt myself staring at her and noticing how beautiful her hair was and how it curled and shined in the sunlight until Thalia called out "Earth to Percy? Hello? There's a hellhound here." and that snapped me back to concentrating on defeating this monster.

So tell me what you think and reveiw please! The next part is coming soon. I hope you enjoyed it.


	2. Getting Lost

Thalia kept the hell hound busy giving Annabeth and me a chance to attack. The hell hound was dodging left and right like a puppy with a lot of energy which made it a hard target even with a sword. Thalia was distracting it alright, but it kept moving and was so busy it forgot about me and Annabeth, so, and please don't laugh, it stepped on my with its front paw. I lay on the ground underneath a paw and took my chance to destroy the monster. I couldn't see anything so I slashed every which way with Riptide hoping that one would hit the monster. That wasn't really working out for me, so luckily Annabeth had stabbed it with her dagger. The monster disintegrated into a heap of glowing dust. Some of the customers came running out looking for the three kids that killed the a cute puppy. At least that's what I think they saw. And then they confirmed what I think they saw.

"Hey! Those kids hurt that poor puppy!" I heard one person say from a distance. Another said "What just happened?" and someone else said "They destroyed the store! Call the cops!" And I knew that we had to run.

I pushed myself up off the ground and capped Riptide. I hurried to catch up to Thalia and Annabeth who were a good thirty meters ahead of me.

I caught up and then we saw a dark corner and ducked out of visibility.

"Gee, thanks for waiting for me." I said in the most sarcastic way that I could say it in between breaths.

"Yeah, don't mention it, Piplup." She shot back at me with much more sarcasm once we all caught our breath.

_Oh yeah? Two can play at that game. _I thought. See the game is sarcasm and name calling. I think.

"No, really, thanks, Christmas Tree" I said. Okay, so I'm not that great with sarcasm, but Christmas Tree was funny, right? Thalia just looked at me like 'what in Hades?'

I explained to her "Well you always give me a new name every five minutes so I will too." She nodded and said "uh-huh." like I was crazy. Then she gave me a friendly face that said 'oh, it's so on' Annabeth just laughed and we walked out of the dark street back to see the bright signs of Manhattan. Or at least I thought we were in Manhattan.

"Um, where are we?" I asked afraid to sound stupid. I knew New York pretty well, but this place was like Narnia to me.

"Hmm. Well, we are, at the…" and Thalia didn't finish her sentence.

"You don't know, do you? Good one, Pikachu." This time I dug into my box of sarcasm and spread it all over that that last sentence.

"Okay, one: I know where we are and two: Pikachu is so unoriginal." Thalia said.

I didn't say anything to that second comment, and Thalia took that as a victory. Thalia just gave a small smile saying 'Ha!' and she lead the way probably further into the Land of Lost.

"Okay, Thalia, really, I think we've been around this block three times. Can we please just call a cab?" I pleaded. I was serious so used her real name instead of a nickname. Okay, fine, I didn't have a nickname ready to throw at her.

"No! Trust me, we're close." Thalia said.

Annabeth and I were still holding hands. I looked to her and she shrugged. I knew what she meant. It was her 'do we really have a choice?' shrug. I sighed and we kept walking…walking into a Hydra. Of course it came after us. Seriously, why are there so many monsters? Didn't the war just end? Who could possible want to kill me now? All of those questions were whizzing around in my head. Once again I uncapped Riptide and charged at the Hydra. I cut and sliced, while Annabeth jabbed and stabbed, and Thalia shot and, well uh, shot some more arrows. Then the monster turned into a flash of glowing dust and fell to the ground creating a neat pile.

"Okay, let's get out of here!" Thalia said hurriedly and ran down the street. She didn't stop running until we found a subway station. _Thanks the gods. _I thought as I gave a sigh of relief. Thalia took us down the stairs this time un-blindfolded and turned to the left heading to tracks D-F.

"Hey, Air Fairy, it's this way." I said not amused as I pointed to the right.

Thalia turned around and scowled. "It's not my fault that this is so confusing." she muttered under her breath. She sounded really annoyed so I smirked indicating that I did my job to annoy her. I lead the way to tracks A-C. And I smirked all the way there. We hopped into the train leading us to Manhattan. We had a long, long, ride ahead of us. Plus, the train was full, again. There weren't any seats for us to sit beside each other. It was like a packed movie theatre; the only way to see the movie was to split up, so we did. Thalia took the first seat on the left side. Annabeth and I kept walking and I spotted one seat. That was the only seat left so I claimed it by sitting in it. Don't worry, of course I didn't forget about Annabeth. I patted my legs and motioned for her to sit on my lap.

"So what's wrong?" I asked. "You haven't said much today."

"Nothing's wrong." She said putting on a nice fake smile. Well obviously something was wrong and I was temped to say 'okay then' and continue to stare at the ads in the train, but something inside me said that wouldn't be what a good boyfriend does.

"Are you sure?" I asked just incase she wanted to tell me. I stared at her hoping that these green eyes would pull out the truth from her. She sighed and after taking a second to look deep into my eyes with her grey sparkly eyes, she began to say something.

"Just a little sad. I'm going to miss camp, and Quests, and… you" She said, her eyes looking a darker shade than usual, and she mumbled that last part, but I understood what she had said, but just for some fun I said "What was that last part?"

I grinned and she looked at me, her eyes lighting up two shades lighter looking more blue-ish and annoyed and she gave me a punch-buggy punch.

"You. I'm going to miss you." She said not looking at me anymore. But her eyes seemed to shift to a dark shade of grey again. I hated it when she was sad. It made me sad.

"Listen, you're going to be close to camp, and you'll be working on Olympus. I know you've been a year rounder but you'll like this. And think of it this way: school is like a quest. You know, you've got your monsters and bullies. And me; I'll still be in New York at Goode so we'll still see each other. I promise to visit you." I said in my most 'trying to make you feel better' voice. I've never been good at this kind of stuff but I think I did alright considering she just hugged me for a good nine seconds. I caught Thalia's look. Surprisingly it wasn't a glare; it was a 'good job' face.

Of course some monster I couldn't recognize burst out and roared which totally ruined the moment. Things going on in my mind: Ahhh! What? Ahhh! Annabeth is pretty. Ahhh! Huh?

Annabeth jumped and turned around only to see an empousa. She had long sandy hair and eyes that glowed red. I pulled out a pen from my pocket and uncapped it and it grew to three feet long. I really don't know what the mortals saw but I'm sure this probably didn't look good. I slashed with Riptide but the empousa ducked into the crowd of people. I heard gasps and saw everyone's face turn to me looking with fear. Everyone immediately shuffled as far away from me as possible. I looked to Annabeth and Thalia who weren't helping me. Great, let me look like a freak while you just sit by pretending like you don't know me. The doors of the subway opened and I dashed out trying to escape the empousa, and all the security guards that were about to come. Annabeth and Thalia ran behind me and we raced up the stairs with the empousa following behind.

The next chapter will be up soon. And feel free to review! I hope you like it!


	3. Meeting Someone New

"HISSSSSSSSSSSSSS" I heard the empousa make a creepy hissing sound that I'll admit, freaked me out a little. Just don't tell Clarisse that!

I looked over my shoulder behind me to see where the empousa was. Oh Hades, it was still behind me running with incredible speed. I caught a look at Thalia, and Annabeth; her hair was swinging in the wind as she ran and- right, scary monster trying to kill me. In the second I took to look at the hissing creature, and Annabeth, I slammed into something and fell hard on my back. Luckily being invulnerable saved me and I saw something cast a shadow over me. I looked up to see what I had smashed into. Another empousa. This one had blue hair with green spots and pink eyes? Oh wait, that was just the dizziness of my eyes playing tricks on me. I blinked for a second and took another look.

"Whoa!" I said rolling over just in time to dodge the empousa's fangs. I immediately got up and so did the empousa. I readied Riptide and the empousa came walking towards me with her fangs showing and her arms raised at a ninety degree angle with her fingers curled a little displaying her awfully sharp claws. For a second I froze and remembered Thalia and Annabeth. Where were they? Were they okay? What happened to the other empousa? I heard another hiss and that cleared all my thoughts.

I sliced with my sword and the empousa dodged it. I managed to hit her leg, but it was the bronze leg, so it didn't do much harm, but luckily it was enough force to knock her to the ground. I raised my sword and swung and cut her on the arm and she turned to monster shavings.

_Annabeth! Thalia!_ Were my thoughts as soon as I defeated the empousa. I ran back to where I had come from and there was no sign of either of them. I looked around hoping to find them. No luck. That's when I stepped on something and slipped. I got up, hoping that nobody had seen me fall on my face. Wow, I'm such a klutz today. I looked on the ground. I picked up a series of beads strung on a necklace; it was Annabeth's. At that moment my face paled and my heart started pumping insanely and I couldn't feel my arms and legs. I stood there feet plastered to the pavement, necklace in my hand, fear running around in my mind. _Annabeth. Annabeth. Annabeth! _I thought. Her name just appeared over and over again, oh yeah, and Thalia's too.

I stood there for about two minutes too shocked to move. Then a hand touched my shoulder. There was no time to bring out Riptide so I spun around ready to karate chop them to bits. My hand was centimeters away from its face when I realized that it was Thalia and Annabeth. I gave one huge sigh of relief like I was holding my breath and just let it all out.

"Hey! It's just us." Thalia said.

"Oh it's you guys! I thought the empousa got you two!" I said as I gave them a big hug like I was a six year old hugging their favourite babysitter. Thalia immediately pushed me off and said "Well it's a long story, let's go" like she was reading my mind.

I wasn't sure if she didn't like my hugs or me, or if Artemis who kick her out for a hug with a guy. It's probably both of them.

They looked like two walking piles of dirty laundry. Thalia in her once blue ripped jeans was now blue with blotches of black dirt stains. She was wearing a black t-shirt that had some writing on it but I couldn't read it. It was probably something about a punk band. Her black shirt now had rips and her face was looked like she had used black powder as make-up foundation. Annabeth didn't look much different. She was wearing blue jean shorts that now had a black substance smeared all over them. Her arms and legs were dusted with the black powder. Annebeth's hair was messy now. It was in a ponytail and now some locks came loose and part of her hair had black dirt on it. But still she looked beautiful.

I must not have looked any better though.

None of us wanted to try the subway again, so I guess we have to walk the whole way. _That could take all day. _I complained in my head. I didn't dare say it out loud because I probably would have gotten a smack from Thalia.

"Why couldn't we just have had burgers at Camp?" I asked.

"Because, Camp doesn't serve burgers." Thalia said in one of those 'duh' ways.

"It'd be easier to just pretend the mashed potatoes were burgers." I said.

"But that just wouldn't be the demigod way." Annabeth said with a smile. And I knew she was right. We were demigods. This is the kind of stuff we do. And it's fun.

Maybe Thalia doesn't like hugs in general. Yes, I'm still harping on that.

None of us spoke for a while. We were all too tired to make any words come out of our mouths. Finally I summed up enough energy to complete a sentence.

"Are we in New York?" I asked.

"Um, well the diner was just outside of New York, so I'd say we're in New York by now. We've been walking for a while now." Thalia said sounding not so tired anymore. Annabeth looked really tired though. _I'm going to be so tired tonight. _I thought. Since I'm invulnerable, it makes me tire more easily.

All of a sudden Annabeth's eyes lit up and she looked like she had a burst of energy. She pointed to some men on the corner of the streets with flyers.

"There!" she shouted with excitement. She ran ahead and Thalia and I followed.

"Hi, can we get a map?" Annabeth asked the man who was wearing a hat.

"Sure," and he handed Annabeth a brochure that was folded up into three sections. "Can I interest you in a tour bus around New York? You can go to any of these places." And the man pointed to various must-see attractions on the map. "It's only $50 a person, but with three people it's only $125 together."

"Um, can we think about it?" Annabeth asked.

"Of course. Have a nice day." said the man with the flyers.

We walked down the street looking at our map.

"Good thinking Annabeth." I said looking at her with a smile.

"Thanks, Seaweed Brain" she replied. I hadn't heard her call me that in a while. Well at least I knew she was fine again and not about to collapse on me. I gave her a small kiss on the cheek as I weaved my hand through hers.

"Eww. Really? Here?" Thalia said acting out shoving her finger down her throat and gagging.

Annabeth and I laughed at the same time.

We stopped and stood against the side of a building in the cool shade. It was hot today. We realized that none of us could read the map. "Okay, look," I said pointing to the circled area. "This must be where we were when we got the map. So we've been walking this way and this," I pointed to the enlarged picture of a museum on the map. "this is where we are heading next to get back to camp."

We were walking for what seemed like hours. We took another break at the museum.

"Hey." said a girl's voice. We all looked up to see a girl about our age. She was wearing a short skirt with a blue tank top. "My name's Kristella. You look lost. Maybe I can help you. Where are you going?"

I started to say "Yeah we're lost. We're going to Cam-" and I was cut off by a nudge from Annabeth and Thalia. "I mean…" I took a second to think. "No, we're not lost. Never mind what I said."

I heard Annabeth groan one of those groans that says 'you are such a Seaweed Brain'. "We're trying to get to Fifth Avenue. Can you help us?"

"Yeah, I know where that is. It's all that way across town though. I can lead you there." said Kristella.

We kept walking down the street. Thalia was on my left and Annabeth was on my right holding my hand. Kristella somehow wedged herself in between Thalia and me. Thalia just looked annoyed. After about half an hour of Kristella flirting with me, Annabeth was quite calm, I must say. I guess she knew this was our only way to get home, plus when Kristella would talk about herself non-stop I would lean over and kiss Annabeth on the cheek. Thalia on the other hand could not put up with anymore of Kristella.

"Stop!" Thalia ordered. We all stopped right in the middle of the sidewalk. Thalia had to walk behind us because there was no room for four of us to walk side by side. We all turned around and Thalia walked up to Annabeth and me. She picked up our hands that were folded together.

"See this? Percy is taken!" Thalia yelled.

The next chapter is coming soon. I hope you enjoyed this one. I love reviews!


	4. Making a Deal

I just stood there; jaw just barely attached to my face, eyes frozen in place watching Thalia yell her guts out. Annabeth had to hide her face to keep from laughing. Oh, but Thalia wasn't done yet.

"I am sick and tired of you!" Kristella opened her lip-glossed pink vanilla flavored lips to say something but Thalia cut her off. "No, I'm not done talking! All you do is talk about yourself and in the brief seconds you aren't talking about yourself, your clothes, or your face, you're flirting with Percy!" Thalia didn't even take a short break for a breath. "We do not need your help to find our way home. So good-bye." And Thalia just started to walk away and Annabeth and I blinked for a second trying to process what just happened and then when it sunk in, we quickly followed her.

"You know, Camp Half-Blood is that way." Kristella said and she pointed to the right.

Once again I was shocked. This time my brain was bouncing around trying to figure out if I heard right. Yep, I heard right. We all turned around to see Kristella with narrow eyes and an evil smile.

"Your scent. It's strong." She said. _Did not see that coming. _I thought.

"Clear sighted, demigod, or monster?" I added in monster just incase, you never know. I was hoping that she'd answer monster so we could chop her up and be done with 'Miss Kristella'.

"Kristella Tyler, daughter of Aphrodite. But just call me Kay." she said adding an I-am-better-than-you-and-prettier-smile. I was speechless, Annabeth was thinking, and Thalia looked as if she were about to strangle someone.

"Son of Poseidon, right?" she asked taking a step closer to me looking at me like she was studying me, I gulped and nodded.

A smile came across her face as she said "You're the one who saved the world, huh?" as she took another few steps closer to me.

"Um, not really. Uh, Annabeth and Thalia helped too. And uh, Travis and Katie and-" I tried to say before she took another step closer. Now she was about seven inches away from my face. Believe me, that's a lot closer that you'd think. And for Thalia, it was just too close.

"Ahem." Thalia said just in time. Kay turned around to face Thalia with an evil smile. I let out a breath I had been holding and mouthed the words 'thank you' to the gods.

"Right. You're daughter of Zeus. Hunter of Artemis. And you-" Kay said facing Annabeth. "You're daughter of Athena. Huh, don't Poseidon and Athena _hate _each other?" Kay said already knowing the answer just trying to push more of Thalia and Annabeth's buttons.

"Yeah. Now what are you doing here and why?" Thalia growled.

"Well, I'll lead you back to Camp, but only for a price." Kay began. "I want Percy as my date tomorrow night-"

"No way in Hades." Thalia said speaking for me.

"-or I'll tell Artemis that Thalia here, has been hanging around a male all day." She said with a fake innocent smile which really means a mean nasty smile. "And I'll even lead you back to Camp."

"No." Thalia said firmly.

"Okay, I'll just have to Iris Message Artemis and I'll let you guys wander your way back to Camp. Must be hard to read that map with all the words spinning around on the page, right?" Kay said trying to temp us to accept her offer.

Annabeth and I looked at each other. I could tell her expression said to go on the date with her, it won't mean anything. Then we looked at Thalia. We tried to communicate to her through facial expressions and we said 'Thalia!" and her face responded

'What? Fine.'

Wow, she's good. She manages to hurt all three of us in one deal. Annabeth- 'steals' her boyfriend. Thalia- blackmails her. Me- well, a whole night of her voice just makes me shiver in fear.

"Lead the way." Thalia mumbled through her teeth.

"Alright then!" Kay said turning around immediately with her old happy face with her high pitched voice like when we first met.

We walked down a few more streets and each street Kay would move closer to me until she was holding my hand. I tried to lose her hand but she had a really strong grip.

"So tomorrow night, you have to wear something non-casual, okay? And be at my house at six sharp. And remember to pull out my chair when we sit down." Kay ordered. The list went on and on, but I tuned it out after the first two minutes.

"Yeah, um, just one question. You said we were going to have dinner with someone?" I asked.

She gave me a little giggle, though none of us had a clue what was funny. "Yes, silly. We're having dinner with my parents. My dad's name is John. Oh, and remember to shake his hand. And my mom,"

_Please say it's her mortal step-mom! _I thought.

"Aphrodite will be there."

_Oh my gods, could this be any worse? I really hope Annabeth will be okay with this. I mean I know she said to do it, but I don't want to hurt her feelings. Athena would kill me! _

The whole hike back to Camp was filled with Kay's high pitched voice. I was doing alright, (and I must say Thalia was handling it well too because she didn't pull her hair out) because I wasn't listening to a word Kay was saying. I was in my own dream land just thinking about Annabeth.

I looked at Annabeth at every second I could get. She was beautiful. We were walking into the orange sun. Her grey eyes seemed to sparkle in sun light and her hair shined, and her whole face just seamed to glow.

My strategy to ignore Kay was working until she asked me a question.

"Um, what was the question?" I asked slowly taking a pause in between each word afraid she would be mad at me for not listening.

She sighed and then smiled. "Do you like raspberry flavor better or strawberry flavor?" She looked at me giving me a smile waiting for my answer.

"Uh, I guess strawberry."

There were plenty more of these questions.

"Do you like Spring Bud green better or Chartreuse green better?"

"Um, Spring Bud?" I said but it came out as a question. I had no idea what those colours were. I only knew light green and dark green. But unfortunately that would be the wrong answer.

"No, you like Chartreuse green, okay?

Finally we made it to Camp. I know we didn't run into any monsters since we met Kay, but seriously, I'd rather run into a monster than Kay. At least the monster wouldn't talk until my ears hurt.

It was almost 6:00. Time for dinner.

I walked over the dining pavilion and got my food. I sat down at my lonely table and sat so I could face the Athena table. Annabeth and I looked at each other the whole time. After dinner, I caught up with Annabeth and I walked her back to her cabin.

"That was quite a day, and the last time I let Thalia take us out, and make deals for me." I said. Annabeth laughed. "I'm sorry about Kay, walking with us and the dinner tomorrow." I said hoping that Athena wouldn't try to kill me now.

"It's alright Seaweed Brain. I know it's all fake. Good night Seaweed Brain." And she gave me a kiss on the cheek and turned into her cabin.

I went to my cabin and sat on my bed for a minute. Tomorrow I had to have dinner with Kay, some girl I just met who blackmails people and likes Chartreuse green, and her dad John who I have to shake hands with, and her mom, the goddess of love and beauty.

_Thanks Thalia! _I said sarcastically in my mind.

The next chapter is coming! Who's excited for Percy's date? Thanks for reading.

Thanks for reviewing and giving me suggestions. I really appreciate it.


	5. Lots of Suprise Visits

"I'm sorry Percy." Thalia said for the millionth time.

"It's alright. I just can't wait to get this night over with. What am I supposed to wear exactly?

"Don't look at me. I probably shouldn't be here anyway. It's breaking a bunch of rules." She was referring to Artemis' 'no males' rule, and Camp's 'no two people alone in a cabin' rule. "Good luck." Thalia said as she left my cabin.

I stared at myself in my mirror. I'm guessing it's a no-shorts kind of dinner. I decided to wear my slightly ripped jeans and a regular white t-shirt. That seemed okay to me. I was about to walk out of my cabin when Annabeth came in.

"Kay will kill you if you wore that." She said. I looked at my choice of clothing and frowned.

"What's wrong with it?" I asked genuinely.

"Don't get me wrong, you look good, but here," Annabeth said pulling out some clothes from my closet. "Put these on." She said shoving a ball of clothes into my hands.

I put on a pair of jeans _without rips_ and a dress shirt and thankfully I got to keep my sneakers. "I'm not wearing a tie." I protested.

"Well, Seaweed Brain, you kind of have to. Like it or not." Annabeth said.

"But I-" I started to say.

"Don't like it. I know, and that's why you're the 'not' part." Annabeth said finishing my thought, handing me the tie. I frowned but put it on.

"Okay, you're ready now. Just promise that it doesn't mean anything, okay?" Annabeth said as we walked towards the door.

"I promise Annabeth. You have nothing to worry about." I said reassuringly. That made her smile her perfect smile.

I walked out of the magical camp borders and took a bus to Kay's street. I looked at the house. It was the size of a mansion. I walked up to the door and just as I was about to knock, Kay opened the door greeting me with "Hi, Sweetie, come on in."

_Um, how long have you been standing there? _Was the question I really wanted to ask, but I decided not to.

"Thanks," I said to be polite. "Nice house."

"Thanks, Honey. Now come meet my dad." Kay said batting her eyelashes.

_Okay, the names really have got to stop. I'd rather hear Thalia's sarcastic voice call me Pajamas or something and then I'd ask her how she came up with the name Pajamas and then she'd say 'Because your initials are P.J. and that stands for Pajamas.' But no. Instead I get Honey and Sweetie and all sorts of names that make me want to puke. _

I cringed and quickly put on my 'meeting Kay's dad' face, whatever that looks like.

"Hello, Sir" I said remembering to shake his hand.

"Hello, Percy."

"Hello Lady Aphrodite." I said giving a slight bow.

"Hello Perseus. Now what are you doing here? Where's that lovely Annabeth Chase? I thought I let you two be together." Aphrodite said.

"Um," I began to say.

"Mother, I asked him to be my date tonight." Kay said interrupting my attempt to an explanation.

"And you accepted? My, your love for Annabeth must not be as strong as I thought." Aphrodite said looking amused with the situation.

"I-" I tried to explain the whole blackmail thing, but I was cut off by Kay again.

"Need to use the restroom? Okay, I'll show you the way." Kay said grabbing my arm pulling me toward the exit of the room. She pulled me into what must be the games room because it was filled with just about every single board game ever invented.

"Wow." was my first response.

"Yeah, whatever." Kay said shaking me out of my staring-at-Kay's-amazing-room-of-every-single-game phase. "I need you to pretend that you like me."

"Um, why? Aphrodite knows about Annabeth already." I said.

"Just pretend that you broke up and you like me now." Kay ordered.

"And I repeat why?" I said still confused why I had to like her.

"Because my dad thinks I'm a failure at being a child of Aphrodite. And if a date with the guy who saved the world won't prove I'm not a failure, then I don't know what will. So, please? Help me?" Kay said in a regular voice; no more high pitched preppyness or _sweetie pie_. _So yesterday her whole appearance was just an act? _I asked myself.

"Um, uh, er, I guess so. Yeah I'll help you."

She let out a big sigh and said "Thanks Percy!" giving me a hug tackling me to the ground. And that's when her father came into the room, an astonished look on his face. We quickly got up and tried to explain but he cut us off by saying "Dinner is ready now, children" Thankfully he did not question us.

We sat at the large dining table. It was covered in a white table cloth with candles sitting in the center. There was a neat place setting in front of each person. There was a plate and a few sets of different sized forks with a cloth hanging out of the wine glass. It looked like a dinner table at a fancy ball.

"So tell us. What happened to your relationship with Annabeth, Dear?" Aphrodite asked while she cut a piece of steak.

"Mother!" Kay scolded. "That is not appropriate dinner conversation especially while Percy is with _another girl_ now, and I'm sure Percy would feel dreadfully awkward to speak about it, right Dearest Percy? Wow. She went from preppy to normal to formal, speaking wise of course.

"Nonsense, right Perseus?" Aphrodite insisted. "Tell us. Go on."

"Um, I'm on a date with your daughter and Annabeth is…" I tried to say. I wasn't sure what I should say so I glanced to Kay who had a thumbs up sign and I took that as an 'okay'. "Annabeth is okay with it." I didn't realize how that sounded. "Um, I mean, she doesn't know." I said trying to cover for my last sentence. I hope my face didn't say '_Liar liar liar.' _I looked at Kay and she gave me a nod that said 'good job'

"Interesting." Aphrodite began to say.

"What is that I hear? Perseus Jackson, I knew you were no good." Athena's voice filled the room. A second later she appeared in the dining room. I stood up and said "Good evening Lady Athena." I know this probably wasn't the right time to say that, but out of force of habit of trying to make a good impression because the mother of the daughter you're dating doesn't like you took over.

"Perseus Jackson, what on Mount Olympus are you doing here with _her_?" Athena said pointing to Kay.

"Um," I gulped. _Should I lie? Or should I tell the truth. Help a child of Aphrodite, or save my butt so my girlfriend's mother who hates me already doesn't hate me more. _I looked at Kay. I wasn't sure if her face said 'go ahead and tell the truth.' or 'don't you dare tell the truth!' those faces are very easily confused, you know.

Luckily I didn't have to decipher her face because Annabeth appeared in the dining hall landing on the ground. I got up and helped her to her feet.

"What am I doing here?" Annabeth asked when she was standing up again. "Mother? What are you doing here?"

"Annabeth, Dear, are you aware that your boyfriend is cheating on you?" Athena said.

Just then came another surprise visit.

"Are you accusing my son of cheating on your daughter?" roared my dad's voice trying to defend me.

"Well of course. He just claimed Annabeth did not know about this dinner." Athena said with anger.

"No," Kay started to say. I hope she's heading to truth land with this. "It's just that Thalia-" and Kay was cut off.

"Thalia Grace had something to do with the fact that Percy is cheating on Annabeth?" questioned Athena.

Kay paused for a second probably thinking whether to say yes, or no. "Yes." Kay said.

"Is this true Annabeth?" Athena demanded turning to face her daughter.

Annabeth looked past Athena's shoulder to me and Kay. We nodded and Annabeth returned looking at Athena.

"Yes, mother." Annabeth stated. I don't think any of us had an idea where this huge lie was heading. What would we say about Thalia? What if they asked us questions separately? What if we got caught in a lie?

"Alright, then." Athena said as Thalia fell into the room and landed on the nice landing carpet I call my body.

"Ow." I said.

"Er, sorry Peanut Butter and Jelly. Where am I? What am I doing here?" Thalia asked.

"Did you have something to do with Percy cheating on Annabeth?" Athena asked staring right at Thalia.

"Huh?" Thalia mumbled. Then she saw Kay and Annabeth nod in the background. "I mean yes." Thalia said.

"And you seem… proud? Is that an accomplishment?" Athena asked getting angrier.

In an instant Zeus showed up too.

"You cannot talk to my daughter that way." Zeus shouted.

And last but not least Artemis joined the party.

Thanks for reading! Hmm, four demigods and five gods. Would that mean there are seven gods because of the four half gods equaling two wholes? Just kidding. Anyways, just wanted to say that the next chapter is coming. Please review.


	6. We Lie to the Olympian Gods

"So what brings you all here this fine evening?" I asked attempting to break the uncomfortable silence. Instead I just got annoyed glares, which when given by a god is multiplied by twenty times the amount of scariness.

"Percy, not now." Annabeth whispered.

"Well, let's see." Athena said obviously not happy. "Did you or did you not cheat on my daughter?"

A whole lot of craziness was going on in my head. _What was the lie again? Where is this lie even heading? Oh Zeus!_

"Um, er, I-." I said biting my lip hoping Athena wouldn't blast me right now.

"Yeah he did." Kay said happily like she wanted to get me into trouble. Yep, this sounded like the second Kay I met when she tried to blackmail us. Well actually not _tried,_ she succeeded. But anyways, the first Kay we met was the preppy talkative Kay who led us the way home. The second Kay we met was the Kay who completely blackmailed us. Now my favourite is the third Kay. This Kay is the nice Kay who I met in her Games Room. Unfortunately the third Kay was nowhere in sight.

Athena scowled and didn't even let me finish. "You Sea Monster! How dare you! I knew shouldn't have let you near my daughter! You are-" and Zeus cut her off.

"Now hold on!" Zeus hollered. "We have not heard the whole story. Let us hear the story before we punish anyone." Athena just made a 'humph' noise and crossed her arms. "Now you _will _tell us what happened."

We quickly scurried over to make one line in front of the gods.

"Start from the beginning, Annabeth dear." Athena calmly said.

"Um, well," Annabeth began. She faintly turned her head to look at the rest of us. We all gave her wide eyes saying 'lie!'. "We all went to…the movie theatre." She said really slowly giving her more time to think. "And then…" She took another pause to make up the rest of the lie. "We went for lunch."

"And how do you know Kay?" Athena questioned.

"I met them at the theatre, Lady Athena." Kay quickly jumped in.

"And you just all of a sudden became friends?" Athena asked getting more and more suspicious with each question. Kay hesitated so Thalia decided it was her turn to talk.

"Um, Lady Athena, Kay was by herself so we asked her to join us at our booth for lunch." Thalia politely said.

"I see. Continue." Athena said, her arms still crossed, deciding whether to believe us or not.

I guessed it was my turn so I spoke up. "Um, then we left the diner and then," I started to say, looking at Athena look at me. She gave me a very angry frown that made me want to hide.

"Uh, then, we um, we, uh." I couldn't make any words come out!

"Yes? Then you what?" Athena asked impatiently.

I took a moment and cleared my mind. "Then we walked along Fifth Avenue together and that was all that happened." I said without stumbling. "But I never cheated on Annabeth."

"Oh gods." Athena muttered not believing when I said. "Such a Seaweed Brain." She said under her breath. "Let's hear from somebody else." Athena said definitely not amused.

"No, just let me explain." I quickly said. She gave me a scary look. "I mean, please Lady Athena?" I said trying to be polite.

Athena took a deep breath and said "Fine."

"Okay, Annabeth broke up with me and Kay asked me to be her date for just a small dinner, like as friends, so I said yes." I thought ahead and made sure I said Annabeth broke up with me instead of the other way around.

"But why did _she_" Athena pointed to Kay as if she weren't here. "Say that you indeed cheated on Annabeth?"

"Kay didn't know that we were going out or that we broke up. So she assumed that I was cheating on Annabeth. Right Kay?"

"Um, oh yeah, right." Kay replied.

" Hm…" Athena said thinking. "Alright. Let's go Annabeth. Perseus, I forbid you to see Annabeth again. Clearly she does not like you. I will be watching." Athena said getting ready to leave. She didn't even care about the rest of the lie as long as Annabeth and I weren't together, I guess. When they walked away from us I heard Athena say "My dear Annabeth, I am truly glad you decided to break up with him." And then they disappeared leaving Thalia, Kay, and I with Zeus, Poseidon, Artemis, and Aphrodite. We tried to escape when we thought nobody was watching.

"Not so fast." Zeus' voice roared. "And what part did Thalia play in this?"

I hadn't thought about that. I bit my lip trying hard to think with all of the eyes staring at me. "She was just with us that day. That's all." I said smoothly. I didn't want to get her in trouble.

"Fine." Zeus said. "I need to be at Olympus. I will speak to you later Thalia." He said magically disappearing.

Once again we tried to leave but Artemis stopped us. "Thalia Grace. Were you with a boy?" Artemis asked.

_Oh boy! _I thought.

"Um, yes Lady Artemis." Thalia said in a really polite voice that she only used for addressing the gods. "It was only Percy."

From the look of Artemis' expression, I don't think she cared that it was 'just Percy'. "Lady Artemis, she wasn't really with me. I was tagging along. It's my fault."

Artemis took a moment to consider that thought.

"Very well then. Do not let it happen again." Artemis directed. Then she left the room and took Thalia with her.

Now it was just me, Kay, Poseidon and Aphrodite.

"I need to get back to my palace." Poseidon said. "Perseus, we will talk later."

Once Poseidon left, Aphrodite said "Hmm. So much drama. I like it! But anyhow I must be going, too. I can't wait until the next episode!" Aphrodite got up and walked out of the room.

"Thanks Percy." Kay said letting out her breath she had held. Now this was the third Kay, the one I liked best.

"Ugh. You're welcome, but what am I going to do about Annabeth?" I asked exhausted from this night.

"Nah, there's nothing to worry about. Just pretend you got back together or something." Kay reassured me.

"Okay. I suppose that's all I can do." I was too tired to think about it. I left and got to Camp Half Blood as fast as I could.

When I entered my cabin, Annabeth was just hanging around. "Hey." I said wearily.

"Hey. What was all that about?" Annabeth asked referring to the dinner.

"Oh that. Aphrodite asked me about you, and Kay started lying and she asked me to lie and I know, it was wrong to lie and I dug us into a huge lie but Kay said she needed me because her dad thinks she if a bad daughter of Aphrodite but I didn't think that it would turn out to be a big like to almost half of the gods and" I said so quickly without taking any breaths. Now I let out a huge breath and continued to say "I'm sorry Annabeth."

A smile came up on Annabeth's face. "It's alright, Seaweed Brain. I understand." She gave me a gigantic hug, which I have to admit, I didn't see coming. "Come on. Let's get something to eat."

She pulled me all the way to the dining pavilion. We grabbed some food and headed to the beach. Everyone left the pavilion and we didn't want to sit alone at the tables. Well, actually I always sit alone but it would be awkward if we sat at two different tables with nobody else there, quietly eating dinner looking at each other from twenty meters away smiling. So we chose option b) go to the beach.

We had about twenty minutes before curfew. After we finished a late dinner we sat on the soft and cold sand looking at the waves come and wash the shore. Soon our twenty minutes became nine minutes before the cleaning harpies came out. We got up and turned around to head to the cabins. Standing right behind us was Athena… and Poseidon. They didn't look amused. Athena looked quite ready to blast me to pieces. That would be about a seven on the 'not good' scale.

Thanks for reading. There's going to be more Percabeth in the next chapter. I hope you enjoyed this.


	7. LOL?

Two scary faces looked at me and Annabeth. When did they get here? How much did they see? I wasn't sure what to say really but I didn't have to say anything because Athena started the conversation.

"Perseus, do you care to tell me what on Mount Olympus you are doing? And Annabeth, what on Mount Olympus are you doing with _him_?" Athena said crossly.

Neither of us wanted to say anything.

"I told you I had my eye on you." Athena spoke.

"Perseus, what is going on? I thought you had broken up." Poseidon said in a low but calm voice.

"Uh, we did break up…" I said stalling for more time for an explanation. "And we were just sitting on the beach. Is there something wrong with two demigods not causing any harm or trouble, sitting on this lovely beach not even breaking curfew?" I asked trying to make us sound as innocent as possible. I mean, really we didn't do anything wrong, just our parents resented us being together.

"I thought I told you two not two hours ago that you are forbidden to make any contact with each other." Athena scolded. "Are you unclear with the term 'forbidden'?" Athena asked getting suspicious.

"Um yeah, but-" I tried to say.

"And Annabeth. I thought you broke up with _him_." Athena said the word 'him' with a face like I-just-ate-something-that-tasted-like-barf face.

"Um, mother, we _did_ break up." Annabeth emphasized the word 'did' to ensure her mother. "We were just talking."

Athena still didn't look pleased with her answer. Talking wasn't okay with Athena and Annabeth recognized that and proceeded to say, "We were talking about not seeing each other anymore. Because he's a total Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said that last line with pretend disgust.

"Ah, alright then." Athena approved.

"Now hold on a second. What gives you the right to talk about my son like that?" Poseidon demanded.

Athena just ignored Poseidon and continued to say, "Annabeth, Dear, I do not wish to see you with this boy any longer." Then she turned to me and said "And you, do not come near my daughter."

"Athena!" He snapped. Finally he's had enough of her talking to me like that I guess. I also guess that Athena was willing to put up with me while I was with Annabeth. But now that we're 'not together' she hates me again.

Poseidon, trident in hand, and Athena, hands glowing gold, did some weird magical spell of some sort and everything went purple. The strength of their powers blew me off my feet and I landed maybe five meters back. When I opened my eyes I saw Annabeth on the ground about ten meters away from where I had landed although we were standing beside each other before the gods did some weird thing.

"Well, I think we're done." Athena said to Poseidon. My dad nodded. "You two are forbidden, that means _not allowed _Perseus, to see each other or be near each other. If you come within ten meters of each other, a magic force will not allow you to come any closer. Good night." Athena left in the blink of an eye.

"Take care, Son." My dad said before he left.

I thought there were bluffing us, but sadly no. As much as I tried to walk towards Annabeth, they were right, I couldn't get any closer.

"No. No this can't be happening." I shouted. It was like one of those movies were everything goes wrong and the main character is all like 'noooooo' except this wasn't a movie.

"Percy, it's almost curfew. We've got to go. We'll figure this out tomorrow morning." She was right. If we got eaten by the cleaning harpies then there would be no point in trying to figure things out.

All night I would catch a wink of sleep. I stayed up until 3 a.m. thinking. Oh, sorry, not thinking about the problem; just thinking of some more names to call Thalia. So far I've got: Tree Trunk and Lightning Bolt. There aren't that many names revolving around a daughter of Zeus.

I fell asleep and woke up to the sound of birds chirping a peaceful song. Just kidding. I _wish_. I woke up to Thalia barging into my cabin, ripping my blankets off and shouting in my ear, "Wake up Fish Sticks!"

I grumbled and mumbled but soon I sat upright staring at Thalia's piercing blue eyes.

"Hmm?" I was still half asleep.

"Dude? What happened? Last night, you, Annabeth, gods, big ka-boom. What?" Thalia inquired.

"I don't really know." I was beginning to wake up thanks to Thalia's very annoying voice. "I think they used some magic on us."

"Yeah, I know that much. I heard from Annabeth. But I'm not about to let my two cousins be ripped apart by the gods. So come on. Get up. Get changed." Thalia ordered.

"Where are we going?" I asked, from now on I didn't trust her with taking me places.

She took in a breath to say something but I cut her off before she could say anything, "And don't even _think_ about saying 'it's a surprise'."

"All right, all right. We're going to see the Gods. We're going to convince them to take of that spell thing." She waver her hand in the air when she said 'spell thing'.

"Okay, fine." I agreed. I got changed pretty quickly for a guy who was still half asleep. After I changed I walked out my cabin and pulled the door shut on my way out. "Okay, ready." I said. Thalia was waiting against the wall with her arms crossed.

"Well it's about time! Gods what takes you so long?" Thalia asked.

I just ignored her. "All right, so how do we get to Mount Olympus, Smarty Pants?"

"I didn't exactly say _we_ were going to _Mount Olympus_, now did I? Nope. We're going to bring the Gods down here." Thalia smiled mischievously.

"Oh, no. What do you mean?" Did I mention I hate her surprises?

She grabbed my hands and pulled them around herself. "Hold me." She ordered.

"Wha-?" The look I had was a cross between weirded out and scared. In two seconds she looked up and kissed me on the cheek. Before I had time to react, like barf, drop her, scream, etc, Artemis appeared followed by Zeus, Poseidon and last but not least, Athena.

"Thalia Grace!" Artemis scolded. By now Thalia had ripped my arms off of her and took a step away from me.

"I'm sorry My Lady, but please, just listen." Thalia begged

"Thalia Grace, this was your last warning." Her voice was low and harsh. Way worse than the top five meanest teachers at my school all put together in one room for detention.

All of the gods were arguing, and by the looks of it, I think Thalia was close to being kicked out of the Hunters. I couldn't let that happen. After all, she only did it to help me fix the problem… which was kind of her fault to begin with, but still.

"Listen!" I shouted. Big mistake. Never talk to the gods like that. "I-I m-mean, please?" They all focused on me. "Thalia only did that to help me. Please don't punish her."

"Why is it that everything always comes back to him?" Athena mumbled.

"I cam here," I stopped myself, because _I _didn't come here. _They _came here, but it would have sounded better in my little speech if I could say "I came here". "I mean, I needed to tell you the truth." Not the _truth _truth, but part of the truth. I faced Athena. "I love Annabeth. She's my best friend and I can't live without her. She makes everything seem better with just a smile. She's amazing. Together we're like… like" I paused to think of something, "Perseus Annide. If we were two elements that made a molecular compound, then we'd be Perseus Annide. But without her, my electron shell is incomplete. Please, Lady Athena, Dad, don't separate us."

"Hmm." Athena considered. "That _was _a heartwarming speech."

"Indeed." Poseidon chimed in.

All of the gods burst out into laughter. Zeus was laughing so hard he was close to tears. Artemis was laughing to hard she was holding her stomach. My dad was laughing so hard he was on the ground.

"What?" Thalia asked, but she couldn't be heard over the laughter. When the gods finished laughing they all stood up and faced us.

Zeus began, "Young demigods, we know what actually happened." He said that between laughs. "You can't fool us." "He turned back to face the rest of the gods, "Aphrodite was right; watching the Demigod Show is entertaining!"

"So wait." Thalia's voice interrupted. "You guys watched everything?"

The nodded.

"And you just played along to teach us a lesson?"

"Yeah, sure let's go with that." Poseidon said.

"And I just kissed Sewage Water over here for nothing?"

They nodded.

The walked away laughing with each other. They looked like a group of teenagers walking down the street for lunch.

"You guys are free now. The spell is gone." Athena announced as she was walking away.

In the distance I could hear them still laughing and Poseidon said, "LOL!" and they high-fived. Their voices were getting fainter and fainter as the walked off, but I still managed to hear Zeus say, "Lawls!" and in response to that I heard Atremis say, "That was so jokes!" Then they vanished together.

That left me and Thalia standing in the middle of a grassy area with our jaws dropped almost touching the ground.

"Well that worked out nicely…" I said still a little confused. I didn't know the gods even knew what "LOL" stood for, or what "Lawls" meant, or "That's so jokes". I was trying to decide if that really happened or if I dreamed it all. Nope, definitely not a dream.

That's the end. Thanks for reading. Sorry about the late update. I forgot about this story until someone asked me to finish.


End file.
